The present invention pertains to a courtesy light for use in a vehicle, and particularly to a multipurpose courtesy light for use both for general lighting and as a directionally adjustable spotlight.
Courtesy lights are commonly used in vehicles to provide interior lighting for vehicles such as for entering and exiting a vehicle. These lights are intended to generally light the interior of the vehicle so that a person entering the vehicle can easily see to safely enter the vehicle and also confirm that an intruder is not present in the vehicle. Additional lights ar typically provided to provide a more focused light for reading maps and the like. These additional lights emit a more focused spot-type light which increases light intensity and also prevents the light from spreading around the vehicle interior thus reducing a driver's ability to see out of the vehicle. In order to accommodate both requirements, two different systems of lighting are generally employed. This is both inefficient and costly. U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,609 issued on Aug. 11, 1987, and assigned to the present assignee, discloses a dual light system used to provide both a spotlight and a floodlight by selectively sliding a lens in front of an otherwise flood-type light. Although such system provides a desired dual characteristic light, it requires additional space for the sliding storage of the lens when not over the light.